The following pages include an overview of the mcasp program; how avid can help you address the focus areas and priorities; background on avid and its impact on students; and contact information to learn more about avid

1. 
   MCASP Program Overview
   

Applications are due Tuesday, May 3, 2016 by 11:59 PM (Eastern Time) submitted electronically through www.grants.gov. Successful applicants will receive notification on or about July 31, 2016.

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  Enhance and expand instructional supports to help students meet the requirements of a rigorous curriculum.
  
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  Provide structures to support military dependent students’ social and emotional needs.
  
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  Increase advanced placement and virtual learning opportunities.
  
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  Improve educator knowledge and skills through professional development.
  
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  Increase opportunities for students to study strategic languages.
  
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  Provide enhanced services for students with disabilities.
  
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  Enhance and integrate technology into the classroom.
  
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  Engage parents in supporting students’ college and career readiness.
  

The FY 2016 grants to Military-Connected Local Educational Agencies for Academic and Support Programs (MCASP) aim to strengthen family-school-community relationships and enhance student achievement for military dependent students. Applicants may choose to design their projects with academic goals, military-connected support goals, or a combination of both. Military dependent student support projects should address the social-emotional needs of military dependent students. All projects should strengthen teacher content knowledge and skills through sustained professional development.

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   High Military dependent Student Enrollment: An applicant may receive five additional points if it includes at least one participating school with 75 percent or more military dependent student enrollment
   

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   New applicants: Applicants may receive five additional points if the LEA has never previously received a DoDEA grant award.
   

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   Charter Schools: Applicants may receive two additional points if they include a participating charter school.
   

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  Are not limited to a research-based curriculum, but may be teaching and learning strategies that often cut across all content areas and all grade levels.
  
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  Include both established and innovative programs.
  

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  Tutoring, such as afterschool tutoring programs and summer intensives.
  
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  In-class supports, such as Response to Intervention (RtI), problem-based learning, and organization support.
  
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  Extracurricular activities, such as STEM or STEAM days and robotics or STEM/STEAM clubs.
  
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  Virtual learning, such as online classes and flipped classrooms.
  

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  Counseling, such as individual or group counseling sessions with a military specialist.
  
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  Peer support or mentoring, such as peer mentorship programs and new student buddies.
  
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  Parent/community engagement, such as college/career awareness and STEM nights.
  
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  Behavior management programs, such as school-wide programs to improve school climate and programs to promote mindfulness.
  

2. 
   Overview of the AVID College Readiness System
   

AVID's mission is to close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society. Starting with the founder’s vision in 1980 and utilizing the expertise and skills of some of the country’s finest educators, AVID has become the nation’s largest college-readiness system implemented in approximately 5,600 schools in 44 states and 16 countries and territories and training almost 60,000 educators each year. AVID impacts over 1.2 million students in grades K through 12 and 40 postsecondary institutions.

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  Academic instruction and support to students delivered by teachers trained in AVID methodologies known as WICOR (Writing, Inquiry, Collaboration, Organization, & Reading)
  
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  AVID curriculum materials and resources incorporating WICOR strategies and best practices
  
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  Exceptional professional development for educators, which provides applications for all teachers on an AVID campus and does not stop at the close of the training. The building of a team over multiple years with on-going coaching from AVID creates a strong, accountable system on each campus
  
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  The creation of an AVID school site team that writes an annual site plan, implements the system, provides peer support to members, and trains and models to other teachers on site.
  
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  A staff member from the district designated and trained as the AVID District Director, who allocates time to oversee system implementation to ensure quality and growth
  
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  AVID structure and activities that promote a sense of AVID family for the students; engage parents and the community; and create a campus-wide college readiness
  
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  The comprehensive AVID data collection and certification system that has been demonstrated to give districts and schools the data they need to support students and make improvements
  

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  Writing as a Tool for Learning. The AVID curriculum has a strong writing component that includes the AVID note-taking system, an adaptation of the sophisticated Cornell notes process. Not only do the notes help students clarify thought, but as students engage in writing for learning, their writing, reading and language skills become stronger.
  
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  Emphasis on Inquiry: Students are trained in the inquiry method, based on levels of questioning (Costa, 2001) to encourage students to own their learning process.
  
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  Collaborative Approach: AVID teachers are guides, facilitators and coaches in a learning community of teachers, students, and tutors working together for the success of the group.
  
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  Organization: Students use tools to organize their study materials and their time to maximize their learning.
  
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  Reading to Learn: The AVID curriculum emphasizes critical reading. Academic reading is scaffolded to help students develop reading comprehension skills.
  

The Funding AVID section of avid.org includes resources designed to help grant writers, including: a detailed Overview of AVID; a budget template with current pricing; the catalog of professional learning opportunities; links to AVID Elementary and Secondary program descriptions; logic models; research on the AVID system; and data demonstrating AVID success.

The following information explains how AVID can be included in a MCASP grant project in order to address the program requirements. Specific components and tools of the AVID system have been used to demonstrate how AVID supports the grant project.

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   Enhance and expand instructional supports to help students meet the requirements of a rigorous curriculum
   
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   Increase advanced placement opportunities
   

AVID places students in college preparatory classes (including honors and advanced placement classes), and then provides them a scaffold of social and academic structures to help them succeed. AVID students become more engaged in school as they progress through the program.

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  Schools with AVID expand their offerings of rigorous courses and improve course content, critical thinking techniques, and rigor in existing coursesⁱⁱ
  
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  AVID schools increase enrollment in Advanced Placement and other high rigor courses^{iii, iv, v}
  
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  AVID schools prepare more underrepresented students for college and enroll more into classes of high rigor^{vi, vii, viii}
  
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  Students need different kinds of support and scaffolding^ix
  
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  Trained college tutors provide key academic and personal support^x
  

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  Underrepresented students participating in AVID are much more likely to take Advanced Placement (AP) tests:
  
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    58% of African American AVID students take AP tests; only 24% of African American students across the U.S. take AP tests
    
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    69% of Hispanic AVID students take AP tests; only 37% of the nation’s Hispanic students take them.
    

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  AVID students are more likely to take algebra in eighth grade – 55% of grade 8 AVID students compared to 48% nationwide. Students who take algebra in eighth grade are prepared for more advanced coursework in math and science in high school. They are more likely to attend and graduate from college than are eighth graders who do not take algebra.
  

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   Improve educator knowledge and skills through professional development
   

Research has established that the most effective way to help students is to improve the quality of teaching. By “educating the educators”, AVID changes what happens in the classroom, building sustainability, accountability, and positive morale directly into the fabric of a school. When observing AVID “in action” with students in a classroom, one observes a unique and interactive environment: students leading inquiry; rigorous problem solving vs. remediation; and engaged students actively participating in the learning regardless of content.

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   Intensive professional development for educators to prepare them to implement and expand AVID:
   

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  Summer Institute is a focused, multi-day program that trains AVID site team members, content area teachers and administrators in the AVID methodologies; helps them build their leadership capacity; and provides time and guidance for them to develop an annual AVID implementation plan for their school.
  
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  Path Trainings are two-day regional or district trainings on how to use AVID methodologies in content areas, to apply AVID strategies such as Critical Reading and Tutorology in all classes, and to address specific factors such as English Language Learners and Culturally Relevant Teaching.
  
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  Leadership for College Readiness: Administrator Training focuses on structures, processes, protocols, and systems that have significant impact on a school’s culture and ability to support college readiness.
  
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  AVID National Conference is a two-day conference featuring dialogue, presentations, and sessions from practitioners currently engaged in college-readiness efforts.
  
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  AVID District Leadership (ADL) Training. This training for district AVID leaders offers on-site visits, training, and facilitation to help district directors build local capacity for implementing, sustaining and constantly improving quality of AVID systems in their schools.
  

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  AVID’s professional development makes a key difference for AVID Elective teachers^{xi, xii, xiii, xiv}
  

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   Increase opportunities for students to study strategic languages
   

AVID professional learning trains teachers to teach students how to learn using WICOR strategies. Students implement what they learn in the AVID Elective in all their classes, including rigorous classes such as AP/IB. The Critical Reading and Writing components in particular set the groundwork for students to be successful in learning new languages. In addition, teachers use AVID Weekly to further promote critical reading skills.

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   Engage parents in supporting students’ college and career readiness
   

AVID engages parents as partners in their students’ success including providing workshops and information designed to increase student and family knowledge of postsecondary education options, preparation, and financing including assistance with the FAFSA.

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  AVID students outperform peers on:
  
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    State-mandated exams^{xv, xvi}
    
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    Grade point averages^xvii
    
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    Various standardized tests^{xviii, xix}
    
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  AVID middle school students improve English Language Arts and Writing^xx
  
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  Schools implementing AVID at the highest levels of fidelity evidenced significantly higher student achievement across all academic and course enrollment outcomes^xxi
  
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  If AVID is implemented properly, AVID strategies spread quickly across campuses^{xxii, xxiii}
  
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  The success of AVID students increases opportunities for all students^xxiv,xxv
  

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  Proper AVID implementation is associated with more positive school culture and climate conditions^xxvi
  
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  AVID students’ attendance rates improved and surpass the general population^{xxvii, xxviii}
  
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  AVID Elective teachers have a positive and lasting impact on students academically and socially^{xxix, xxx}
  
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  AVID seniors are retained in the program if they have a strong personal bond with their AVID teacher and are in a program with a “family-like” atmosphere^{xxxi, xxxii}
  

4. 
   Supporting AVID Information (use with resources on avid.org)
   

The key components of the AVID system improve academic performance by providing academic support and enrichment.

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  Two of the five class periods per week focus on academic training using the WICOR strategies and college entry skills. On these days, students learn study skills, note-taking, time management, critical reading, library research, test preparation, essay writing, test-taking strategies and how to write college entrance essays and prepare for entrance exams.
  

One of the five class periods each week focuses on career exploration, understanding the academic preparation required for career choices, and researching colleges.

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  Students develop an understanding of their postsecondary options, explore careers and set goals, and learn what it takes to achieve those goals. They learn about colleges, the college entrance process, costs and financial aid.
  

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  Two class periods per week are spent in AVID tutorials, which are collaborative inquiry groups conducted by college and peer tutors trained in inquiry-based collaborative coaching techniques. Students participate in these tutorial groups to both support their success in their college preparation courses and to help develop the social support that comes from intense studying with classmates.
  

Tutors learn to utilize Costa's Levels of Questioning (text explicit, text implicit, and experience-based thinking beyond the text) and focus on higher-level questions in the tutorial process. The inquiry process is facilitated by skillful questioning and provides students with the opportunity to become independent thinkers who master their own learning.

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  Writing as a Tool for Learning: Writing is basic to thinking, learning and growth. It allows students to think in complex ways, contributes to self-knowledge, helps clarify and order experience, helps students to be better readers, and enables students to “do better” in school. The AVID note-taking system is an adaptation of the sophisticated Cornell system. Students take detailed notes from class lectures and texts in a wide right-hand margin, and develop clarifying ideas or questions regarding these notes in a narrow left-hand margin. Not only do the notes help students clarify thought, but as students engage in writing for learning, their writing and language skills become better and better. Reading skills develop as students have experience in using language. AVID students are required to take binders to academic classes and use them to take notes.
  
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  Inquiry: Students are trained in the inquiry method, based on levels of questioning (Socratic Method), rather than on lecture. This engages students in their own learning, resulting in student ownership for enlarged understanding of concepts and higher order thinking skills.
  

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  Collaboration: AVID’s high engagement learning strategies involve collaborative activities through which individual students help each other learn, thereby strengthen their own learning. Students are responsible for their own learning; faculty serves as facilitators in a learning community working together for the success of the group.
  
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  Organization: Because college students face competing priorities that are often overwhelming, organizational skills are critical to success in academic and social situations. Management of time and energy and learning to set priorities can make the difference between success and failure for new college students. In addition, students must learn to plan effectively for academic assignments, organizing information and ideas for papers and projects. Consistent with its focus on promoting “individual determination,” AVID provides support for organization of materials, assignments, assessments, handouts and notes.
  
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  Reading to Learn: College instructors consider reading a basic skill, one that all students should have acquired before entering college. However, students often neither complete assigned readings nor know how to effectively read assigned material—one of the most common challenges reported by college instructors. AVID’s approach to “critical reading” provides faculty with common-sense and research-based strategies designed to help students read more effectively. Skills such as “reading with purpose" can be scaffolded with more complex activities to ensure that students are connecting reading material to prior knowledge, understanding the structure of texts, and using text-processing strategies during and after reading to improve comprehension.
  

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  Critical Reading curriculum focuses on the explicit teaching of active reading strategies that help students gain deep understanding of expository text and prepares students for the rigors of academic reading and writing assignments.
  
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  Student Success is designed for teachers of subject area elective courses such as business, computer applications, visual and performing arts, and physical education and demonstrates how college readiness can be supported in all subject areas. Participants learn about AVID methodologies and WICOR strategies such as goal-setting, focused note-taking, organization, and time management. The strand focuses on incorporating these college readiness skills into all classes, from physical education to visual arts, in both middle school and high school.
  
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  Culturally Relevant Teaching provides a framework of effective methodologies that validate the culture of all students in the classroom and on the campus. These strategies will enhance the site’s curriculum and make relevant learning connections to increase subject matter comprehension. Teachers are able to create multi-dimensional lessons and differentiated evaluations, while incorporating rigor through various learning styles. Intentional cultural instruction provides a college-ready atmosphere where all students can feel accepted for who they are and what they bring to the classroom.
  
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  English Language Arts curriculum includes strategically scaffolded students’ reading experiences to promote critical thinking and writing. Through the use of writing to learn, reading comprehension strategies, inquiry and collaboration structures, and organization and metacognition, teachers support students as they read text (print, non-print, and digital) to discover more about themselves and their world. Teachers use the stages for process writing to engage students while increasing rigor, and include Writing to Learn and On-Demand Writing. Strategies for oral language include: listening, presentations, discussions, debates, speeches, and performances.
  
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  History/Social Science provides an interactive and multi-sensory experience. The teacher is provided strategies using writing, inquiry, collaboration, organization and reading to deepen students’ understanding of ideas and concepts, while improving reading comprehension, writing, and collaboration skills.
  
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  World Languages is designed to accelerate all students, especially AVID students, in the acquisition of a second language, based on AVID methodologies and activities to enhance cultural awareness and the language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing.
  
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  Math and Science includes both professional learning for content area teachers and Summer Bridge programs which address the area of extracurricular activities (STEM) and tutoring (summer intensives). For example, AVID offers Path to Schoolwide training for math and science teachers; the Write Path I Science Teacher Guide provides lessons and activities incorporating a wide range of effective WICOR strategies to deepen students’ science knowledge and skills. The guide is a resource for science teachers of middle school courses through the most rigorous courses in high school; and the Write Path I Mathematics is designed as a resource guide for teachers and students in courses ranging from pre-algebra to calculus.
  
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  AVID Weekly is a strong web-based curriculum resource that promotes critical reading skills. AVID Weekly can be successfully applied across all subject areas and employs AVID’s critical reading strategies while aligning with Common Core State Standards. AVID Weekly uses a variety of news sources for application in conjunction with AVID’s critical reading strategies. Every month AVID Weekly creates 15 articles and lesson plans, covering a variety of subjects. Articles are chosen to encompass a broad range of content areas, which are identified on the monthly matrix. Teachers in the high school and middle school who teach critical reading as a subject or need assistance teaching students critical reading techniques within their content area (science, social studies, etc.) can use AVID Weekly. AVID Weekly includes various AVID teaching tools such as: Socratic Seminar, Four Corners Discussion, Reciprocal Teaching, Collaborative Group Presentation, and Philosophical Chairs.
  

AVID significantly closes the achievement gaps between groups of students. About 92% of AVID students complete course requirements for admission to a four-year college or university, compared to 36% nationally. The proportions of AVID students who completed these course loads were nearly consistent for each sub-group of students, with a gap of only 3 percentage points from the highest performing to the lowest. That gap nationally is 28 percentage points.

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  AVID opens access to Advanced Placement courses for minority students. The proportion of 2013-14 Hispanic or Latino seniors taking at least one AP exam is almost two times higher among AVID students than among Hispanic or Latino students in the U.S. (AVID 2014 senior data collection; The College Board. (2015). AP cohort data: Graduating class of 2014. Retrieved directly from the College Board)
  
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  AVID students are more likely to graduate from high school; 99% of AVID high school seniors graduate from high school.
  
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  AVID also increases student achievement through high school graduation. A project tracking AVID students in Texas found that 98% of the students who had completed three or more years of AVID graduated from high school with a recommended or distinguished diploma; only 81% of the students not in AVID graduated from high school with more than the minimum level diploma.
  
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  Students with 3 or more years of AVID were more likely to enroll in higher education the fall after graduating high school (65% vs. 53% for students without AVID) and return for a second year of college (54% for AVID students, 46% for other students).^xxxiv
  
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  At least 78% of AVID high school seniors are accepted to four-year colleges. Minority students who participate in AVID are much more likely to enroll in a four-year college. Over half (53%) of the AVID African-American students who participated in AVID enrolled in four-year colleges, compared to a national average of 32%, and 44% of the Latino students who participated in AVID enrolled in four-year colleges, compared to national average of 28%.
  
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  AVID graduates’ high enrollment and persistence rates are relatively stable across multiple graduating classes as demonstrated below.
  

Additionally, AVID graduates persist in college at rates that outpace peers and national cohorts. For example, 88% of the AVID graduates of 2011 who enrolled in college within the first academic year after high school persisted into their second year. This figure is much higher than the national first to second year persistence rate of 77%, reported by the National Student Clearinghouse (2015 Persistence-Retention Snapshot Report). No national comparator is yet identified for persistence into the third and fourth years of college. In addition, persistence into the second year of college is relatively stable across ethnic groups and students of low socio-economic status.

AVID research, data and references can be found on its website at www.avid.org.